Champion jockey Craig Williams has learned to trust the bigger, bolder Bella Nipotina in the past year and it was capped with victory in the $20 million group 1 Everest at Randwick on Saturday.
It wasn’t a pretty ride to take the world’s richest race on turf, sitting three wide without cover throughout, but Williams knew he had to trust the star mare.
Bella Nipotina (right) holds off Giga Kick (left) in The Everest.Credit: Getty Images
The faith was repaid as the Ciaron Maher-trained sprinter fended off a late challenge from Giga Kick to become the first mare to win the race in its eight running. Williams had won The Everest two years ago on Giga Kick but had been sacked from the ride a little more than 12 months ago.
“I have never seen a mare like her just get better and better,” Williams said. “The past year has been amazing with her.
“She could have been in this race last year but Ciaron didn’t think she was ready. She would have run a good race, but that patience has been rewarded this year.
“She is at the peak of her powers now, and that was her very best despite my ride.
Bella Nipotina has been to Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane since winning the Giga Kick Stakes during the Everest carnival last year. Williams has been everywhere with her.
“She is mature and doing things she couldn’t do last year,” Williams said. “She’s a bigger version of herself now and so powerful.
“I have learned to trust her because of the horse she has become, and we had faith she could do it a bit differently today.”
It was the brave plan to go forward hatched by Maher and Williams that proved decisive.
Williams speared from the outside barrier intent on being positive instead of taking a sit back in the field as expected. Bella Nipotina ended up outside the leaders and three wide and was there to be beaten when she hit the front in the straight, but her rivals simply couldn’t.
“We didn’t draw the barrier but we were just that confident in the horse,” Williams said. “I spoke to Ciaron about going forward, and he said, ‘I love the plan, let’s go and do it, let’s execute it’.
“Have faith in her. But, as I said to the owners, I’ve got to talk her into it from the start because usually she can be slow out.
“She jumped and I came back, I’m happy to be three wide.
“She was in the zone, so I gave her a rest.
“Then I thought, I’ll challenge her early because she felt like if anything comes to her, she’s going to hold them off, and she did.”
Giga Kick ($14) rallied on the inside of Bella Nipotina ($9) in the final 100m and the tough run looked as if it would tell against the mare, but she was able to hold on for a head victory. Three-year-old Growing Empire ($9) was 1¼ lengths away in third.
“She just lifted all the way down the straight,” Williams said. “That is what you can trust about her.
“She is never beaten.
“I knew there was one coming at me on the inside and in the final couple of strides I saw it was Giga Kick. But wasn’t going to let him past.”
It was the Queensland winter that earned Bella Nipotina the TAB slot in the Everest. She won the Doomben 10,000 and Tatt’s Tiara and was runner-up in the Stradbroke.
“We thought about that and talked about it, but she had been in the best form of her career,” Maher said. “She went there for a couple of runs and had four; that is how tough she has become.
“She went to another level, which I didn’t think was possible, and now she has won The Everest.”
It would have been cruel if Giga Kick had beaten Bella Nipotina, because Williams was sacked as his rider last year.
“Those things happen,” Williams said of losing the ride on Giga Kick. “We are booked day to day, ride to ride.
“If I was on him and I would not have had this run with Bella Nipotina.
“She has been there for me every time I have ridden her in the past 12 months and made me believe in her.
“I knew I could trust her and she couldn’t let me down.”
Mark Zahra on Giga Kick felt he had Bella Nipotina inside the final 50m.
“He was trying that hard it was like he hit himself at the 50m,” Zahra said. “I had a beautiful run and was just beaten by a better horse on the day.”
Godolphin’s three-year-old Traffic Warden was a late scratching at the barrier after he slipped and sat down in the stalls.
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